Today she is an elite athlete, mountaineer, climber and speleologist. And she has broken the world record for staying in a cave: 500 days completely alone underground without contact with the outside or time references of any kind. But the story of Beatriz Flamini (Madrid, senior sports coach) goes beyond a profession or a hobby, it is a way of life. Ten years ago she left her home, her job and her "normal" life to go to the mountains, where she felt much happier. She, a small van and nature. And self-sufficiency, far from the needs created by society.
On November 20, 2021, he voluntarily entered a cave in Granada 70 meters deep. A personal challenge, loneliness, the absence of light, cognitive and social isolation. A daunting challenge for anyone, including Flamini. But his instinct is different. For years he has tried to show that a better life is possible away from the burdens that society has imposed on us.
Her relationship with the extreme began with the practice of taekwondo when she was just a child. She came to have the possibility of going to the Olympic Games, but there, at the age of 17, she gave up and at the same time a world that she did not know opened up to her: the mountains. Since then she has not stopped climbing, living in nature.
He spent 95 days in solitude and self-sufficiency in the mountains of Palencia in 2019 to prepare for a greater challenge, to travel on foot and alone more than 4,000 kilometers through the territory of Mongolia that he finally could not materialize due to the pandemic.
As she explained to the Active Woman podcast in 2021, a few weeks before entering the cave that would hold her captive for 500 days, “about eight years ago I entered my midlife crisis and due to a series of mental and self-esteem processes , I wanted to go to the mountain alone. One day I prepared the backpack for five days for the Pedriza mountain. After five days, through tears, I forced myself to leave. I discovered that what I liked was to continue living there. Now I am able to take my backpack, or nine backpacks, and spend 95 days in the mountains, and I am self-sufficient and happy”.
Flamini started from what he considers a “normal” life, what is supposed to be done. He had a job, a partner, a house, "but he was not happy." She was constantly sick. She "I was admitted to the hospital and I did not know what was happening to me." And she one day she wondered. "What I want to do. I'm going to die anyway. What would you do before that moment occurs. And that was taking the backpack and throwing it into the mountains. She hasn't been to the doctor for eight years. With this I feel good, ”she explained then.
For this survivor it was very heavy “to maintain a house, a dwelling. Some electricity and water bills. So she took a "little" van and she went on an adventure. “I appreciate a tap or a shower, heating. But if you normalize not showering and washing yourself, use spring water instead of headlights... I haven't used soap for eight years. I am becoming healthier. I have no skin and hair loss problems. My clothes stay clean without soaps. How many things can you do without them. They create needs for us." And she recognizes that she needs bags. I'm happy without a toilet!
For her, self-sufficiency is not survival, it is fending for oneself. Although the challenge that she has just achieved has more to do with the limits of what is bearable by the human being. After spending 500 days underground, a team of psychologists will study the possible neuropsychological and cognitive changes that this tremendous challenge has brought to her body.
